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Funds sought for tower restoration

Local officials are hopeful the Bruce Goff-designed play tower in Sooner Park will be restored to its original state in time for the tower’s 50th anniversary this summer. With the majority of the needed funds in place, the city’s community development department is working to raise the rest in donations.

According to Community Development Director Lisa Beeman, the city has earmarked $65,000 for the project, which joins $50,000 that was donated by Phillips 66. The total cost of the project is $143,000 — leaving $28,000 to be raised.

“This play tower stands as one of Goff’s few public works of sculpture and is reminiscent of the space-age era in which it was designed,” Beeman said.

“It is truly ‘one of a kind’ and unique in every sense of the word, from a recreational, artistic or an architectural point of view. Because of this, the City of Bartlesville would very much like to restore the tower to its original design and once again open it for children and adults of all ages to climb the spiral staircase to the observation deck.”

Goff was commissioned by the wife of Harold C. Price (founder of the HC Price Company) to design the Sooner Park Play Tower in 1963 as a gift to the children of Bartlesville. It was to be a part of the then-new Sooner Park that was developed from land donated to the city by the Price and Adams families.

Reaching 50 feet at the tip of its spire, the tower is a spiraling staircase with a metallic mesh sphere at the top. It was positioned off-center and tethered to the ground outside the perimeter of the concrete barrier with 12 cables, each of which were adorned with metal beads in the same color scheme as the tower — the colors of red, yellow and green.

The 6-foot-high Mobius strip consisted of continuous steel fencing with welded rods atop 12 piers and was intended as a climbing and crawling feature. When traversing, children could crawl continuously around the strip for 360 degrees without crossing any boundaries, Beeman said.

The tower was completed by Scott and Hill, a local structural steel fabrication company at the thrifty price of $7,000 for the entire project. Taking three weeks to construct, the completed tower was famously moved down Frank Phillips Boulevard on Feb. 28, 1964, where it was erected.

“The tower was closed in the early 1990s due to deterioration,” Beeman said, adding that since that time the entrance has been closed, bolted and locked.

“The sand play pit and mobius strip have been removed and the once vibrant paint has faded and all but disappeared. The twelve cables that anchored the tower have been reduced to three and the colorful beads are largely gone.”

The most recent damage done to the historic structure, however, was in the early morning hours of May 9, 2008, when a vandal ran a vehicle into the tower, cutting one of the remaining cables and damaging the fencing, which encloses the spiral staircase. Beeman said that at that point, it was clear that the tower would either have to be removed or repaired. Thankfully, the city and Phillips 66 came through with the needed funds.

Scott Perkins, curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the Price Tower, said he has been working with the Chicago Institute of Art on the project.

“While the Price Tower does not own the play tower, we are enthusiastic supporters of its restoration,” Perkins said.

“We plan to do an exhibition on the tower in conjunction with the renovation.”

Beeman said the project is slated to wrap up this summer.

“If the remaining funds can be raised, the project will begin as soon as possible with a target completion date of July 4, 2013,” she said.

Anyone wishing to make a donation is urged to contact Beeman at 918-338-4237.